My cure for Cancer
by Xannijn
Summary: Is there really a way to cure the one disease which will drive humanity towards the abyss of extinction? And perhaps the mixture of lust and love between these two twined young men stands a chance against the loss of hope. JetxZuko, !rated M for a reason!
1. Chapter 1

Before we commence the story, there are a few remarks I'd like to make:

Before we commence the story, there are a few remarks I'd like to make:

This story contains several references to **sexual content**, as well as some rather erotically tinted paragraphs – which are **not viewable on **, yet there are links you may follow on my profile page if you do wish to read the adult rated parts.

The pairing is Jet – the tanned freedom fighter – x Zuko – the firenation prince - , which means the story is all about gay romance. **If you have a problem with such contents then leave now without making a fuss, please. **

The characters in this story are strongly adjusted to fit the everyday life. Both head characters are now above the age of eighteen – legal, that means. 

**Genre: Romance, angst and gay-hate.**

**Full ****Summary: **As the ignition of cancer down the depths of Zuko's veins survives, his body fails to handle the pressure of both chemo and life. And in their life-long relationship Jet and Zuko both choose to fight, each on their side of the storyline, yet is there really a way to cure the one disease which will drive humanity towards the abyss of extinction? Not every disease must be cured. Not every disease is a disease. And perhaps the mixture of lust and love between these two twined young men stands a chance against the loss of hope. Perhaps Jet is Zuko's one and only cure for cancer.

**Rating: M**** on . R on .**

**Pairing: JetxZuko ('slash')**

Cancer and gay-hate are both everyday subjects. And perhaps they are not suitable for every reader. Yet I do believe it wouldn't harm you at all if you read this and 'rewarded' me with at least one review/comment to give me your opinion.

With every four/five reviews a new chapter will be sent in. Yet this may also be infected by the current circumstances.

Even though this is most likely the most tragic fiction I've ever written, I do hope that you will take the time to enjoy this. There is plenty of lovey-dovey ZukoxJet action to your liking. :) 

Everyone has lost someone to cancer. Everyone has been confronted with the harsh truth behind loss of a family member, a friend, an acquaintance, perhaps even a pet. 

With this story I hope the point will be clear enough for everyone to understand.

Chapter 1

Cancer.

Breath refused to cooperate and got stuck somewhere down the depths of his throat as the doctor spoke the word he had least expected of all now. An awkward silence took hold of his heart as everyone else in the room gave him stares, looks, eyes wide open and mouth lightly parted, making all of this even worse than it already was. Cancer… Blood cancer! Leukaemia! Impossible. Cancer is something you can only find in books, something that happens to other people, old people, not him. Not to him.

'You're lying.' He brought out quietly, in desperation, as he actually knew very well a doctor would never lie to its patients about something this serious. Hands folded up to fists trembled and his eyelids followed their example. Everything on his body was shaking uncontrollably, as if the disease which had been hiding for so many years now finally dared to meet the outside world and release its power over him.

Another heartbeat skipped as the doctor shook his head, folding his hands together in misery, sympathy, pity for the victim. 'I wish I was, Zuko. But I'm telling the truth.'

Zuko felt his face turn pale, paler than ever before, and was about to scream just when the doctor interrupted him. 'I know this is hard for you. But you're actually a very lucky person. Leukaemia is not so bad, with the right amount of chemo once in a while and a steady amount of doctor visits I know we can cure you, Zuko. Trust me.'

_Cancer… Cancer…_

Zuko kept his mouth shut and pressed his lips together, fighting an urge to scream. An urge to cry. His mind told him to say something yet his body refused to cooperate. He suffered… cancer. The one disease which was certain to drive humanity towards extinction. The one disease which was impossible to prevent, and almost as impossible to cure. A few moments of silence struck their hearts as a tear left his eyelids, his legs turning to nothing more than jelly, the room around him fading away and letting darkness in through something what felt like a burst in his eye. He was going to faint, the doctor noticed, and he quickly jumped up to catch the boy as he fell.

Doctor Huang knew very well this was not the time to approach a patient like this. This boy needed some time to let it all come to him, some time to cry, be alone, or perhaps just think. Yet no matter how much the patient needed all of this, Huang knew they barely had any time left. They had to hurry on if they wanted to safe this life. Because aside of everything he said, this boy was not exactly "lucky". He was rather cursed. The cells had been spreading quickly, and they had been just a bit too late to discover the disease now. They'd be needing twice the amount of chemo they usually gave to a patient suffering of leukaemia. Leukaemia, also known as blood cancer.

A sting of desperation hit him down his abdomen as he felt the boy's muscles tense. They could have saved him. They could have found out earlier. If only he had been more aware, he could have taken Zuko under research sooner and they would have been able to stop the cells from dividing through his body like this. It was his fault the teen was about to start a fight for life. _His_ fault.

The doctor had to ban those thoughts away from his mind for he wanted to speak again.

'We will have to keep you here tonight, Zuko.' he whispered, not too quietly, as he helped the boy to stand on his own feet again. It took Zuko a clumsy sway of the arms and a startling bend for the floor, yet he managed to stand again. Huang patted his back with only half a smile across his face. 'If that's okay with your uncle.'

The boy's guardian – although Zuko had left his parentally wing years ago - got up from his seat and helped the doctor supporting the fresh cancer patient. Together they allowed Zuko to slide down a chair, slowly regaining consciousness, as Iroh looked up to meet the doctor's gaze. 'Of course, doctor. Do whatever it takes to cure him.'

Zuko could hardly believe how cool his uncle could be after all of this. As if he hardly even cared. Another tear dripped down his cheek as his thoughts took off the free run, ran down the path he had always forbid himself to go, to think words he wasn't allowed to think. Maybe he's sick of taking care of you all your life long? Maybe he's angry for all those years he had to share his food with a boy who wasn't even his son? Maybe he'd always wanted to use the money spent on taking care of this orphan on a long vacation? Maybe…

A cry escaped his throat.

Maybe this guardian _wanted_ him to die.

'There, there…' Iroh soothed him, patting his back gently as his other hand stroke him over the back of his head, flattening his silken locks of hair. The kindness within the touch brought a form of peace to the paler man's heart and made it almost impossible for him to think these horrible thoughts. 'It's okay… you may cry if you want to…'

The warmth of his uncle's rather large body and comfort of his shoulder he offered to cry on got the paler man over the edge and he let it all go. He cried, tears flowing over the soft skin covering his cheek and dripping over the very tip of his chin, absorbed by the cloth of his guardian's vest. He was scared, afraid of what might happen next. Afraid of when and how he would be confronted with the truth and forced into telling everyone he knew; his friends, his family, his partner. What would they do to him in here? Would they take him under surgery? Would they scan him to check on him some more? Would they inject some sort of medicine to make him better right away? Or, would they just let him to die? Maybe the situation was already out of hand. Maybe that's what they wanted to keep him in for, just so they'd be able to report the exact time of dying in their fucking files!

A shot of anger stabbed him down the abdomen. Oh no. He would not let them do that. Grief had stricken on his heart, though now the combination of anger and a strange form of jealousy changed all of his usually calm behaviour. 'I'm not staying here…' Zuko whispered quietly yet firmly, squeezing his uncle's rather large shoulder. The uncle who might just wanted to kill him as well. 'I want to go home. I want to sleep in my own bed tonight.'

Iroh looked up at the doctor, his gaze questioning. Huang simply shrugged as he shook his head and tapped Zuko's shoulder to get his attention. Bending down to his knees to face him better, he wiped some of the tears away with a napkin he had pulled from a tissue-box. 'If that's what you want, then I'll let you.' Of course. Of course he'd let him. They had no right to keep him in here if the patient was not willing to cooperate.

Once he got up again all of them kept silent for at least an hour, while the doctor moved Tueseday's patient to make room for this one instead. After all, treating cancer was more important than just examining a child's broken arm. And he felt personally guilty for this all. If he would fail in saving this person's life, he might just reconsider his rather important position in this hospital. He knew he could not bare the burden of losing another patient due to his own stupidities. Not again.

Zuko's cries could be heard through all of the west wing of the building, and they would not be set silent until the sun sunk below the horizon.

- - - - - - -

The annoying little ring tone of Zuko's cell phone woke him out of his sleep late that night. He grasped for the ridiculously tiny device and tried to read the name appearing on the screen. Sokka. Probably waking him for nothing once more. Just to ask "Yo, you asleep yet?". No matter how much he enjoyed his best friend's company, sometimes Zuko found him rather annoying. Like now.

Annoyed he tossed the gear back on its place, on the pedestal cupboard right next to his bedding. He turned himself back on his back and stared up for the ceiling. White. Pale. Much like his own skin. His hand reached up to cup his cheek and he felt the skin turning warmer, a blush crawling over his face. Poking for the exact spot Jet had kissed, to kiss him goodbye just a few days ago. How many days had it been? Three? If that's so, then he should be back from his business out of town now.

His gaze floated mindlessly around the room he slept in, faint rays of moonlight slipping in through the curtains. A hospital's bed, hospital's covert, hospital's door. Even a hospital's smell. Stench. Crawling up through the tunnel of his nose and finding a way for his brain, making him feel light headed. Even how the large windows with dirty white curtains let in so little light despise their size reminded him of the fact that he was in the hospital right now.

He had decided to stay here after all. The sooner they'd pet scan him again the better, first thing in the morning they'd wake him up just to drag him over to the scan room – he called it the scan room for now – so he'd be the very first patient of the day to be making use of it. He had never been pet scanned before in his entire life. In fact, he had never spent the night in a hospital before in his entire life. A sigh escaped his trembling lips, as he hid his face to his pillow to find some comfort. First night in a hospital. And most likely, not his last.

Finally the beeping of his cell phone stopped. Just to make room for a new kind of beeping.

Zuko gasped and shot up from the sheets as he heard that, nearly throwing the night lamp off the pedestal board in his eager. The melody of that one romantic song he kept forgetting the name of played through his head and his heart seemed to jump. His cell phone only gave that exact tone when Jet was the one to call.

He grabbed the device off its place and pressed his thumb to the green button, putting it to his ear as he awaited the voice on the other side to speak first. Just because he had temporarily forgotten how to say "hello".

'Zuko? You there, hun?'

'Yes, Jet, it's me.' he replied, as for the first time in more than five hours, a smile played over his lips.

'Oh, good. I'm sorry I'm calling this late, baby, but I just had to hear your voice again.' Zuko eyed for the digital clock next to him on the cupboard as Jet's words flowed down his ears. It was even later than he had thought it was; exactly two AM. He smiled and shook his head as he replied again.

'That's okay, Jet, I wasn't asleep anyways.'

He could hear his boyfriend chuckle on the other side of the line. 'I didn't expect you to be either, darling.' Heart made a little jump in joy as he said that. Darling. Oh, how lovely that word could sound if Jet was the one to say it.

'I missed you, baby, when do you think you'll be out of the hospital?'

A gasp nearly escaped Zuko's lips yet he managed to swallow it back in just in time. How did he know about the hospital? Uncle? Could it be that his uncle had actually told him about his nephew suffering on cancer? And that Jet actually reacted this calm to that? Cancer. He was in here for cancer. He was in here for cancer and tomorrow would be his first pet-scan. Tomorrow they'd calculate how big his first dose of chemo will have to be. They'd check on his insides to see in what horrible state his cursed veins were, they'd know whether all the treatments would be of any use at all to save his life. Maybe-

'Zuko?' The smooth voice snapped him out of his sorrow right away. Zuko stuttered a while before he actually managed to reply. 'Ahh- I don't know, really…' He had to swallow the urge to cry away for he wanted to continue. 'I… I'll have to ask the doctor…'

Jet had most likely heard the little jump his voice made, before ending the sentence ever so quietly. 'What's wrong, baby? Are you alright?'

_Are you alright?_

Of course he wasn't _all right_! He was fucking dying!

Another gasp.

Cancer… Cancer was often accorded with death. Cancer led to death.

He really was… dying.

A tear dripped down his chin, eyes squinted to tight lines, several sobs found a way out. Sobs as they shot up from his midriff, straight towards the opening of his mouth. Sobs loud enough to be heard by the one listening to his words.

'You're crying.' the voice spoke, a slight hint of surprise yet pity as much. Zuko nodded, yet as he once again that realized Jet couldn't possibly see him, he spoke. 'Yes. I'm sorry, I'm just… Like… I just…' Another deep breath before he could speak again. 'I missed you so much.' It was a lie. Although of course, he had indeed missed his partner a lot, it was not the reason for his tears shed in fear for his future agony. Jet soothed him a bit with loving words, and for just a moment Zuko sunk away in daydreams, eyes closing and oddly tight grip on his cell phone softening. He calmed down just a bit. Thanks to Jet, of course.

'It's okay, baby, I'm here for you.' the rebel said as to end his series of soothing words eventually. 'You'll be fine.'

That got Zuko over the edge once again. He closed his eyes tightly and clenched his fingers around the cell phone once more, a sob finding its way through towards his mouth and whimpering. For he knew that Jet wasn't telling the truth there. 'I have to go now…' he spoke with trembling lips, shivering as he inhaled a deep breath, which got stuck somewhere down the back of his throat and caused him to release an odd kind of gasp.

He quickly flattened his thumb to the red button, putting a hold to the conversation. More sobs tortured his stomach as he cried, hiding his face to his pillow, the cell phone scattering down on the hospital's floor with a sharp whack. It was almost immediately after he had hung up on his partner, Jet called again. And again. And again. For the next two hours, non stop, leaving at least ten messages on his voicemail.

He would listen to them all later. Just not now.

Zuko dug his fingernails down the softness of his pillow as a cry in desperation was muffled down the cloth.

He… needed to be alone now.

**This is my least favourite chapter. Obviously.**

**I do hope that you are eager to read more and leave a review to express your kindness. It will be of great influence to when the next chapter will be submitted.**


	2. Chapter 2

You might be surprised – might – to find this update this soon already

**You might be surprised – **_**might**_** – to find this update this soon already. Yet, due to personal circumstances, plus the fact that plenty of Deviants have taken the time to read and comment the first chapter, I find it necessary to update now already. Tomorrow I'll be travelling back to Belgium, which will cause weird time-differences to make me skip a day. Complicated. But ah well, let's face it; life **_**is**_** complicated.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter :) It's not as decent as further chapters, and a little short compared to the others, yet at least I like it better than the first.**

Chapter 2

_Message one._

Damn that woman's voice. Always making him wait to hear the messages. If only she knew how annoying she could be to so many people worldwide. Zuko had a quick look at the clock next to him. Nine in the morning. He hadn't slept at all.

_Hey, why the hell did you do that? Please answer your phone, Zuko, I want to know what's going on!_

_Message two._

_Hey there, it's me again. You're crying and I want to know why. Come on, baby, just pick up the fucking phone already!_

_Message three._

_I have to know what's going on. Please, please Zuko, I want to help you! What room are you sleeping in? Pick up the phone!_

It went on like that for a while. Actually, it went on like that for another twenty messages. Until it all stopped at message twenty-four.

Zuko chuckled to himself as he locked his arms around his knees, which he had pulled up the bright white bedding, staring down at the screen of his cell phone as he stared at some of the pictures Jet had sent him, regarding message fifteen.

_Message fifteen._

_Alright then, _don't_ pick up the fucking phone. I'm afraid I'll just have to cheer you up myself then. Make sure you check the next few pictures I'll send ya, I'm gonna punish you for hanging up on me. Love ya. Kiss._

Three pictures, to be exact. One of them was showing mainly Jet's nose, pressed to the eye of his cell phone's camera, only one extra large eye visible, making a face. Staring straight back to him. Frown deepened, and to make it complete; an angry-faced smiley drawn the fingertip he showed off. So, practically just making a funny face to cheer Zuko up. Unfortunately he was not in the mood for silly things such as these. It got a chuckle out of the boy's throat, nothing more.

The second picture a perfect shot of his behind, bringing a blush over the pale teen's face. He remembered how Jet's ass could feel in his hands, how Jet's lips could kiss his throat, how Jet's gaze of lust could make him whimper. This picture was just added for fun, Zuko thought at first. Until he noticed what text had been stitched in the cloth of his new pair of jeans.

_© Zuko_

He cried out in laughter and tapped another button to see the next and thereby last picture. Jet. Just looking… extraordinarily beautiful. His usually pointy brown eyes now rather wide, looking up in the camera hopefully, cute. Tip of nose a soft pink due to the cold of the outside air at night, and lips lightly parted to show him a line of straight, white teeth. Tanned skin and gorgeous locks of brown hair covering part of his face, poking his forehead as usual.

Zuko pressed a kiss to his screen, and quickly chose this shot as his wallpaper. So he'd be able to look at it as often as he wanted without having to search for it through his other pictures.

A slight frown consumed his face, as he thought of what he had done to his love last night. He had just hung up on him without a decent explanation. Making it seem like he actually didn't care about him, about them.

'I do care, Jet…' he whispered to himself, fingers caressing Jet's tanned cheek on the photo. 'I care for you so much…'

He cursed himself as he felt his eyes sting once more. Fuck, he was crying again. Just thinking about everything got him over the edge and caused him to shed more tears again. Cancer… who would have ever thought that? Why was it so that such things only happened at times you least expect them to happen, least want them to happen?

Maybe the doctor had seen it wrong. After all, he had just taken some blood for research. They had seen some cancer cells in the blood they had taken, he claimed, but perhaps it were no cancer cells. Perhaps it was just some kind of reaction to lack of sugar, or lack of iron, seeing Zuko had not been eating too properly the past few months. Thinking about it this way gave him hope, and hope gave him a reason to stop his crying again.

The door opened, and screeched a bit as if to get Zuko's attention. He gasped and quickly wiped his tears away, cheeks still feeling warm and eyes swollen as he cursed himself for that. He wanted to keep his grief hidden, though anyone could notice now. He didn't want them to find him weak.

'Excuse me?' a kind voice came from the door, as a nurse peeked through the half opened entrance. 'My apologies to disturb you, sir, but you have a visitor.'

A smile covered Zuko's lips as he stared at the one entering the room, just after the nurse had left. Tall, handsome, tanned. Jet.

'Jet!' Zuko cheered out loud, just a bit too loud to a hospital's norms, as he got up from his miserable position on the bed. Jet spread his arms wide to catch the boy in an embrace as he slammed into him, hugging, burying his pale nose within the softness of Jet's shirt. The warmth and comfort of this body forced the smile on Zuko's face to widen, a blush added, eyes closing as he inhaled the lovely scent of his lover. He had missed this so much.

'I'm so happy to see you…' he whispered, muffling his face to the collar of Jet's vest, pressing a kiss to the cloth covering part of his neck. A large hand stroke his back and pressed their bodies closer to each other, most likely Jet's, as the paler man felt warm lips kiss him on the edge of his ear, tongue poking out to give him just the slightest bit of a shiver, just to tease him.

Jet chuckled and bit his lover along the ear a little. 'I can't believe this. I'm out of town for three simple days, and you end up in the hospital. I can't leave you alone ever again, now can I?'

Zuko chuckled as well. Even though he knew that there was nothing to laugh about.

'I missed you, you know that?' the tanned rebel said quietly, as neither of them had the guts to let go of each other. They felt good this way. 'Damn you for not answering my calls, though.'

Zuko bit his lip, and sought more comfort through the embrace he shared with his partner. 'I'm sorry, Jet…' Path of feather light kisses followed the curve of the tanned man's neck, putting a hold to the journey once he made it to the soft spot just underneath his jawbone. He had to lean on the very tip of his toes to reach there, meaning that Jet was indeed a lot taller than him. 'Can you ever forgive me?'

'Mhmm… Not sure if I can, darling…' Jet nuzzled the tip of his nose along the skin of Zuko's jaw. 'You'll have kiss me for that first…'

Zuko chuckled again, feeling the ground underneath both of his feet vanish as his lover pulled him up just a bit, so their faces would be close enough to each other for their lips to lock. The sudden warmth and softness of feeling Jet's lips pressed against his own caused Zuko to blush even more, although it was definitely not part of his habit to blush a lot, and his hands clawed up in between all the brown hairs covering Jet's head, pulling him closer so they'd be able to deepen their kiss. Tongues poked at each other just once, as to send a simple spark down their bodies, before they commenced the intriguing tangoing of their lips. Wrapping of tongues, rocking of lips, tasting of mouths. The kiss lasted for a full ten seconds, and would have continued another ten more if the doctor had not entered the room.

His eyes widened and he nearly dropped his freshly-made cup of coffee as he stared upon the two young males, clearing his throat as to get their attention. He did his very best not to let either of them notice his surprise nor disgust. 'Pardon me?'

Zuko and Jet stopped their kiss almost immediately as they heard his voice, both blushing furiously upon being caught. Blushing in a good way. Somehow embarrassed, otherwise proud. Huang fought the urge to frown in disrespect.

'We're settled for the pet scan, Zuko. Follow me.' He wasn't even asking.

Jet couldn't understand what was going on now. He gazed at the doctor, a bit unsure, eyes flashing from the one person to the other in the room. 'Pet scan?' His voice sounded surprised, rather trembling. To him, a pet scan meant something serious was wrong. Something life endangering was torturing Zuko. 'Why a pet scan? Isn't that… only for serious cases?' He felt fear somewhat consume part of his heart as well as the thought of something serious being wrong with his love, Zuko.

Huang smiled bitterly at the gay couple and shoved his hands down the depth of his pockets. 'If that's what you are bound to believe, then who am I to disagree?'

Jet felt his stomach curl to that. There really was something serious going on with Zuko. He knew he would not survive seeing him in pain, and the thought of having to lose him…

He quickly grasped on for his boyfriend again and held him tight, hiding his face down his neck. Zuko bit his lip once more and let his lover do as he pleased.

Doctor Huang folded his hands to fists down his pockets, as he felt himself tremble all over. He had been reading this patient's file all night through, but not once had he discovered anything to tell him this twenty-one year old boy was… gay. Or perhaps even bi. Well, not that it actually mattered, to him they were all exactly the same; sick. Stricken by one of the world's most dangerous diseases. Stricken by a disease even _worse_ than cancer.

He felt like he had to say something. Just to break the awkward silence in between them. Yet, Jet was the one to speak first.

'Zuko, why a pet scan?' he asked, never once giving the boy some space to take a breath. 'Did you break any bones? Do you have some kind of tumour anywhere?' Zuko did not reply. Though Jet had felt his muscles tense at the tumour part. His heart scattered right as he stood there and the grip on the boy's shoulders tightened, feeling almost painful as he bored his nails through his upper skin. The word his mind was now faintly bringing up towards the surface of his thoughts couldn't be true. _Shouldn't_ be true. 'Don't…' A thick swallow had to travel for the depths of Jet stomach before he managed to continue. 'Don't tell me you have…'

'Don't say it!' Zuko exclaimed, just a bit too loud, fingers fumbling at his lover's shirt as he hid his face to this broad chest. He trembled nervously, his hands wanted to hold on to Jet's back yet his arms would not cooperate. He was frightened by the truth and afraid of what might happen next. If Jet would have spoken the word he feared most of all on this planet right now he would have screamed.

Zuko tried not to sob. Again. God, he felt weak crying just about that. It was just cancer, damn it, anyone could get that!

Yet, no matter how stern the voice in his mind telling him that felt, it did not bring the courage he was searching for to him.

'Let's get moving, shall we?' Huang spoke, taking a hold on Zuko's collar to pull him away from Jet, yet quickly releasing his grip on the cloth. Pulling his hand back as if he had just touched some kind of flame. Filthy faggot. 'The sooner we'll scan you the better.' For only one mere second, if not less, the tiniest bit of a devilish idea shot through Huang's mind; what if something happened in that scanner? What if, just in case, the machine would unexplainably lose it, and perhaps even explode? Explode and take that son of a bitch straight down to –

The doctor hit himself in the face, hard. Neither Zuko nor Jet noticed, luckily, and he forced himself to ban those thoughts out of his head. Ban them in name of the oath he had taken as a doctor. He had to help this boy, gay or straight. Plus, the chance of explosion with their high tech devices were extremely low. He hoped.

Yet still… _Gay_?

He closed his eyes as he guided the gay boy through the hallways. Closed his eyes so he'd be unable to see, closed his eyes so he'd be safe. Unfortunately, he knew very well that closing

his eyes couldn't possibly be enough to lock the monster inside of him away for good.

**I hope you managed to enjoy this chapter****, somehow. **

**Obviously, the only OC you must know is the doctor; Huang. The nurse's name is barely even named. I'm not too fond of creating OCs for a story, yet found it of great importance in this case.**

**The more you review, the sooner you'll have the next update. :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Message towards fanfiction

I'm a little behind on chapter upload compared with , but ah well, I begin to wonder why I'm uploading it here anyways.

Message towards :

**I'm a little hurt here. I have never worked on a story as hard as I did on this one, and still, there's no one to read this.**

**I've been inactive on this damned site for far too long by now. Yet, because I'm receiving way more than enough comments on , I claim it my right to submit the next chapter already.**

**After this story I believe you all understand that I'm leaving behind me. For I've learned everything there is to learn within this stage of my life. Anyone interested can still find me on , or within daily life, crossing the streets of Belgium like any other ordinary fifteen year old teenager. :)**

**Enjoy anyways.**** For those who care to read anything longer than 500 words.**

**(sucky chapter, I warn you…)**

Chapter 3

The pet scan had been done, and as Zuko had been asked to wait for the results they had figured everything out. They knew the exact dose of medication they were supposed to give him, the exact state of cancer cells down his veins. Huang had been given the X-rays for closer examination later that day. For now they had to give the patient his first dose of chemo, because if they would not, they knew chances on survival would be ridiculously small.

A frown crossed the doctor's forehead as he increased speed on walking through the building. Let's see… The chance of survival for this patient was about 50 to 100 in his current situation. Most likely he'd discover a tumour somewhere down his body in later phases of the cancer, so it would drop to 30 to 100. One wrong dose of chemo? 10 to 100. After that he would most likely pass away immediately. If he would not and survived the mistake in the medical treatment, his body would have lost a lot of strength and the level would fall even lower, to 1 to 100. Then, there's the surgery to remove the tumour.

And now he questioned himself and his will. Was it really worth the battle?

'Will it hurt?' Zuko suddenly asked, breaking the barrier between them shaped silence. He gave the doctor a worried yet well aware stare, eyebrows pointing upwards and eyes wide. The doctor sighed as he saw the sorrow bathing across the kid's facial expression and put a halt to their rushing through hallways and doors.

'Yes. Most likely, it will.' he replied, giving him a sheepish smile to cheer him up. Action, of course, failed. The pale teen hung his head down and bit his lower lip, skin tightening as his teeth put strong pressure down there, fingertips trembling just the slightest as he brought them up towards his mouth so he'd be able to bite his nails instead. A bad habit he had created through the stress of the past few weeks, but at least it was better than to fracture the veins of his lips with his teeth.

'Is it… Safe? Safe to do chemo on me already?' He fiddled nervously with the cloth of his white vest. 'I have only been here for one night.'

Huang now managed to put on an actual smile. 'Of course it's safe, kid.' He patted the boy's head as if he were talking to a ten-year-old. A strong, firm hand, rushing through Zuko's raven dark hair. 'And once all of this is over, you're free to go home again.'

That wasn't exactly the truth he was telling, though it did come pretty close to it. He was free to go home if he swore he would note down any possible side-effect the chemo would give him. Though the doctor had made his own list of what would most likely happen to this patient; nauseous for at least twenty four hours straight, possible head ache, easy bruising. He'd bet all of his soul on that. After all, he'd been reading through this patient's file all night. He knew pretty much everything about him now.

Well, except for his sexuality, of course. The file hadn't exactly warned him for that.

'Doctor?' the boy asked, quietly, almost too quiet to be heard through all the noise of the life-like hospital.

'Yes?'

Another moment of awkward silence. Zuko's gaze fell towards the tiles covering the floor, as he rubbed the sides of his shoes together nervously. 'What exactly is chemo?'

'Excuse me?' Huang asked, as he turned the head to have a better look at the boy.

'Chemo.' Zuko continued to stare down at his shoes. 'What is it?'

It surprised the doctor that his patient – who was old enough to have quite an amount of knowledge by now – had no idea of how they treated most cancer patients they had in every hospital on the world, and something told him that this conversation could last quite long. He smiled at the boy – forgetting the hatred he was supposed to feel towards this homosexual – and nodded at two chairs leaning to the bright while wall, motioning for him to sit down. Zuko did as told and sat down, leaning deeper down the chair to look a little more confident, even though it created quite a reverse appearance.

'Chemo…' Huang started, sitting down as well. 'Chemo is a treatment which exists of injecting special kinds of medications, known as cytotoxic antibiotics or antineoplastics. Though we use the term cytotoxic because it's easier to pronounce.' The last sentence came out with a smile, though he failed to bring one to the teenager's face too. He cleared his throat as he continued.

'Anyway, as you know antibiotics are not used easily by a regular doctor when you've caught a cold. Because they are known to not only destroy the ill cells, but the healthy ones too. As in this case, the effects are a whole lot worse than you'd expect from a simple injection. The side effects chemotherapy might cause are an extremely long list, young man, and I'm sure you know some of them.'

Zuko finally let his gaze get up to meet the doctor's again as he nodded. 'Don't you, like, grow bald that way?'

A chuckle escaped the doctor's lips. 'Yes, that's a way to put it, indeed.' He doubted for a split second, though eventually he brought his hand up to brush through the young man's raven coloured hair. It felt soft, was about 2 inches long and the locks were all healthy. It was quite a shame that he'd have nothing of it left. 'To be more exact, you simply lose all the hair covering your body. Hair on your head, facial hair, the tiny hairs on your arms and legs…'

Zuko felt his stomach turn at some of those thoughts. He tried to imagine himself bald, not a single hair left on his head, exposing all of his pale skull to the cold outside air. Yet somehow, he managed to smile as well as frown is disapproval. 'I can live without the hair, it's not like I can't buy myself a wig, or something.'

'Don't think that losing a bit of hair is everything you'll be going through, young man.' Huang replied, a frown across his eyebrows and voice stern and shallow. 'You could feel nauseous for days, which will lead to vomiting, you can have unexplainable pain through all of your body, depression of the immune system, diarrhoea or even constipation, hearing loss, memory loss, weakness of the heart… The list goes on.'

Words were lost down Zuko's throat for at least two minutes in a row after that. Nothing to be heard, except for the footsteps of passer bys, the gentle rattling of the rain against the window and the slow and suspiciously relaxing mood of their own breathing.

'Anything else you'd like to know before we start?'

'Yes.'

'Then what might that be?'

Zuko folded his hands together. 'Can I… make a choice?' Gaze stared even deeper down the floor, voice trembling, yet it was obvious he was trying to keep it steady. 'Choose not to do chemotherapy?'

Huang's eyes widened just a bit, as he felt his breath hitch somewhere down his throat, stuck just between his lungs and midriff. It took him quite a while to think about what to reply. 'You may extend the date, of course, yet choosing not to do any chemo at all is a choice you will have to pay with your life eventually.'

Silence fell again. Zuko felt his eyelids close and his breath tone down, eyelashes brushing each other shortly before flashing upwards again, for his eyes to open. 'Death?' his lips spoke, yet his head felt too light to even care about his deeds right now. The doctor nodded as response.

A chuckle escaped Zuko's dry lips and he sat up straight in the chair, giving the well-educated doctor a look that could well have been either a frown or a smile, which humanity had given the name regret. Regret of his own decision. 'If that's all there is to fear, then why the hell not?' he spoke, eyes wide as his legs finally began to move once more. He got up from his chair and wiped his lap clean. 'Give me all fucking cytoshit you can find, it's not like I'll survive this anyway!'

The rain continued to tap along the window, unaware of the grief spread within these cursed hospital walls. Yet there was not a single happening on this planet that could force these raindrops from patting the building on the back.

- - - - - - - - -

Poke. Poke, poke.

Zuko gently prodded the tip of his index finger to the tiny hole the needle had left in his now rather vulnerable skin. Much like a footprint, yet then the size of an ordinary bleeding pore. Huang had put a plaster over it to keep the few droplets of blood from spreading over his icky green hospital clothes or bright white bedding, as if he'd actually save the household staff work with washing that way. Those people had to face the confrontation with hundreds of blood-soaked blankets and pillows every day, so what great difference would those three or four droplets of healthy – and with healthy meaning aids-less – blood make? Not the tiniest bit, obviously.

He smacked himself in the face rethinking his thoughts just now, burying his nose down the palms of both his hands after that. Damn it, the doctor was right: it truly wouldn't take long for the first side effects of the chemo to take place. Although he wasn't sure whether mood swings were part of reactions to the mix of antibiotics eventually named chemo, or reactions to the explosion of hormones pregnant women would have. If it was not part of any chemotherapy reaction then he moved on to an other possible explanation; memory loss in an early state, also due to the chemo.

It was raining outside. Droplets of rain sprinkled down his window sill, crashing down the cold stone it had been made of and detonate to millions and millions of tiny water drops, either fading away down the atmosphere or washed away by an other droplet. Endless, this ritual of nature itself seemed, even though Zuko knew very well that someday the rain would have to stop. And if the rain stopped then the clouds would move away. And if the clouds moved away the sun would reappear. And if the sun reappeared, then everything in everyone's life would go better. After all, drama in sappy American series is enforced with the sad and negative emotions rain can bring, so good things would more likely happen when the sun warmed everyone's face and hearts.

_My insides all turned to ash…_

_So slow…_

Zuko cried out loud the very moment he heard the tune of that song play through his mind, telling him his cell phone was ringing. Even though he only heard a simplified version of the rather complicated song, his mind remembered the text clear enough to add it to the melody immediately, regaining the ability to think clear. Something he surely needed at times like these.

He grasped the device off the night stand and pressed a finger to the green button, bringing his hand up to his ear to hear the voice he'd been hoping to hear. 'Jet?' he spoke. The reply on the other side took quite a long time to get through.

'Maybe. Depends on what you need him for.' The irony and somewhat sharp yet smooth tone of the voice confirmed his expectations and the hospital patient let out a laugh in happiness.

'I'm so glad you called, Jet! I really missed you through the past few hours, you know…' Zuko made some kiss sounds and cuddled the phone to his cheek, not perfectly realizing what he was giving all his love to now. He could hear Jet chuckle on the other side of the line and sensed the slight bit of bitter irony once more. 'Save that for the judge, dear, I don't believe a word you're saying.'

Strange enough, that did not sound too ironic. Zuko felt his eyebrows point upwards as he put the phone back where it belonged: to his ear. 'Baby, what's wrong? Are you mad at me?'

Jet snorted. Zuko whined. 'Why? What did I do wrong?'

'It's not something you did, it's something you didn't. You won't tell me what's keeping you in the hospital while I know it's something I have to know.'

Zuko fell completely shut. The rosy skin covering his cheeks turned white and his voice got swallowed down the darkness of the deepest depths of his throat, as well as his courage and breath. The complete zone between his midriff up to the Adam's apple had been declared imprisonment area for everything he needed most in these circumstances.

'Well? Care to speak up now?' Jet snapped through the phone, obviously growing more and more annoyed as the tense seconds passed by. Zuko suddenly remembered how to combine his lips and tongue to speak and he let his voice be heard.

'Jet, you have to understand I can't just-'

'Can't just _what_, exactly?'

Awkward moment of silence, Zuko's hand trembling as he held the phone, breath raging though there still was lack of oxygen making his head feel rather cloudy. For a moment he thought he'd faint. Not to the words Jet had said, but as a reaction to the chemo he had just been given. Therefore there was nothing to be said through the next thirty seconds of silence. Jet hissed.

'Yeah, that's exactly what I expected you to say.'

'Jet, wait…'

'I'm not asking much, Zuko, I'm just asking why you're forced to spend two nights in a hospital? You didn't break any bones, did you?'

A sigh escaped Zuko's throat and found its way up through his lips, not too certain of what to answer now. Not that he didn't know what he was supposed to say, it was the lie to tell instead he had to come up with now. Yet every time his mind tried to figure something safer out to tell, his heart brought him back to the cruel, cursed reality he had to face. Cancer. He had cancer. Blood cancer, to be exact. And many doctors would try and save what's left of his life with their fucking chemotherapy, at least one session every two weeks, most likely one per week eying the graveness of the situation.

'No.' he replied eventually. 'No, don't worry, I'm doing fine.'

'Excuse me?' The mockery and indignation practically dripped off the tone his voice had, thick as butter yet sharp as blades. 'Zuko, you are in the fucking hospital! You're not doing fine at all!'

Zuko was on the verge of tears now. He did everything he could to keep control over his voice, to resist the urgency to telling his boyfriend the truth, to make sure he wouldn't say or do anything stupid now. 'I'm sorry…' he whispered quietly, almost too quiet to be heard by regular human ears, one single tear dripping over his chin. Followed by another. And another. Oh lord he hated crying. He hadn't cried once in the past two years before the doctor had given them the horrible news, and now it must've been at least three times in the past two days.

And for just one moment, one second, he wondered how much better life would have been if that man hadn't discovered the cursed cancer cells among his blood.

'Are you crying again?' The bitter tone down Jet's voice had sunken to a lower, softer level, sounding rather gentle compared to the last tone he had brought. Zuko simply nodded, not aware of the fact that there was no possibility for Jet to see him do that. A deep sigh came from the other side of the line as the cancer patient sobbed. 'That's it. I'm coming over, Zuko, I can't stand this.'

A short yet definitive beep made clear that Jet had hung up on him.

Zuko sat there, knees together on the bed, both his hands holding on to the cell phone as his lips trembled nervously. Eventually his fingertips lost all the force they had left and dropped the device to the bedding. Fear yet challenge covered his mind much like a blanket of doubt, knowing that he had about half an hour left to come up with a suitable lie to tell. He couldn't just tell the truth and say he had cancer, right? He couldn't possibly break his boyfriend's heart like that.

He let his body sink down to the sheets and bent his knees up, locking both his arms around them as he closed his eyes. Pain and misery managed to faint away slightly once he got the chance to get rid of his ability to see.

**Believe me when I say that the next chapter belongs to one of my favourite of them all.**

**Expect the next chapter once receives its comments again. This is not an unpopular nor a bad story just because no one takes the time to read anything longer than 1000 words or because no one seems to feel ANY sympathy at all towards gay couples.**

**Another proof of the American nation being one complete retard alliance against equal rights for everyone. Because ah well, the white straight fat man will always be more important than the black/white gay non-obesities patient.**

… **I wouldn't mind being reported for my opinion. An easier way to get off this site. :) Yet it'd be pretty damn lame.**

**Next chapter will be up… ehh… whenever I say so!**


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